Sylvia Hickman
11/28/11
The Journal of Helen Tufts Bailie:
Historical Context
When I analyzed the journal of Helen Tufts Bailie through the lens of genre, I isolated it,
mostly removed it from its broader context and analyzed it from within, comparing the
progression of her writing style and the emotional content of the journal at various points in her
life. While that was a rich subject for analysis, it is helpful to remember that a broader context is
also important, one I must consider in order to fully understand the circumstances surrounding
her creation of a journal. While her radicalism and political activism are not usually the focal
points of her journal entries, it clearly informed much of her life and the choices she made. Her
social and political convictions, as well as more a general contextual history regarding her and
the people in her life are important to understand if I am to understand how Bailie and her
journal fit into the larger context of her life and the era she lived in.
While much of my analysis of the journal has concentrated on Bailie’s literary styles and
emotional motivations, the journal itself is clearly marked as a historic document that belongs to
a specific time. While she talks mainly about her daily life and her emotional and philosophical
being, there are many references to specific events and social movements that were specific to
their time. As a young woman of 21, she wrote on January 9, 1895, “We had some abominable
stuff to read, Bulletin list, Dictionary, ‘Butterflies,’ , but we stop and talk a good deal. Miss
Davis has Woman Suffrage much at heart, and Social Purity.”1 So even before becoming much
of a radical, Helen was already learning about and interested in some of the pressing social issues
of the day. Some of her time-specific comments seem novel today, like when she wrote in 1919,
1
“Of all the wondrous sights of this age, yesterday I saw the most wonderful- a horseless
carriage…” Occasionally she would write about current events, with her positions on the matter
clearly evident, as when she wrote on August 11th, 1945, “The second atom bomb evidently
unnerved the little vermin, but they are still wriggling. The Allies are in no temper to negotiate.
We may get ‘Unconditional Surrender’ this week-end. Same will come to the Vatican some day.
And isolationism and monopoly of the world’s goods.” Clearly she had strong feelings about the
United States’ role in WWII, as well as organized religion and aspects of capitalism.
Unlike many manuscripts, in which there is very little known about the author, the life of
Helen Bailie herself was reasonably well documented. Perhaps this is because of her relatively
high profile political activism later in life, namely her spearheading of complaints again
Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) for their list of blacklisted speakers. Or perhaps it
is because so many documents of hers still exist at Smith, not just the journal, which paint a
relatively full picture of her life and activities.
Helen Tufts Bailie was born Helen Matilda Tufts in Newark, NJ on January 9, 1874, but
her family moved to Massachusetts in 1875. After graduating from high school, she worked in a
printing office where she set type, worked as a proofreader at the Riverside Press, and did
secretarial work at Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston.2 I am not positive why she chose this
job, but it could be because such work was one of few office jobs that women could hold at the
time, or it could be a result of her love for reading and writing (later parts of her journal mention
her trying to publish a manuscript she had written). In April 1895 Helen met Helena Born, a
labor organizer, anarchist and writer with whom she became very close. Helena introduced her to
a number of social causes and radical ideas, including vegetarianism, socialism, communism,
2
“Biographical note,” Helen Tufts Bailie Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
<http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss130_bioghist.html>.
anarchism, dress reform, and Walt Whitman. She also introduced Helen to William Bailie, with
whom she ran a cooperative vegetarian restaurant. In January 1901, Helena Born was diagnosed
with cancer of the uterus and died shortly thereafter. Helen Tufts and William were married in
1908 after living together for seven years (which must have been a bit scandalous at the time).
William Bailie owned and operated a basketweaving business until he retired in 1946. They had
a daughter, Helena Isabel, born in 1914 and a son Terrill (Sonny), born in 1916. Sonny died of
spinal meningitis at the age of three.3 It is not stated explicitly, but I would assume that her
daughter was named after her close departed friend, Helena Born.
Helen Tufts Bailie joined the Anne Adams Tufts chapter of the DAR in 1915, and in
1927 she discovered the society's blacklists of "doubtful speakers," which included progressive
reformers, disarmament supporters, and pacifists. Bailie made the lists public in February 1928
and she wrote a pamphlet, signed by other DAR members, entitled "Our Threatened Heritage,"
protesting the blacklist. Bailie was subsequently expelled from the DAR. She continued to
support other causes, including the legalization of birth control and preventing teachers from
having to take an oath affirming the United States and state constitutions. After moving to
Nantucket and then to Ohio to live with their daughter, Helen published a book in 1956 entitled
Darling Daughter: A Satirical Novel, about the DAR blacklists and the “Red Scare.” William
died in 1957, after which Helen moved to Florida, where she died in 1962.4
While I was reading Bailie’s journal, one of the richest subjects for analysis was the fact
that later in life, Bailie realized her journal was going to an archive, and she began typing and
revising it, turning it into a narrative of her life. She knew that she would be sending the journal
to Smith specifically, because at the beginning of one of her entries, she wrote “These recordings
3
Ibid.
Ibid
4
must go to Mrss Margaret S. Grierson, Librarian of Smith College, Northampton, Mass.” I
wondered why Bailie would want to send her journal to an archive, and why specifically were
they going to Smith College? The finding aid for this collection states that
“Helen Tufts Bailie was introduced to the Sophia Smith Collection by donor, Elaine
Goodale Eastman. Bailie donated her papers in 1949 and 1957. The initial donation was
transferred from the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan Library. In 1949
Eastman donated additional letters related to the local Northampton Chapter's
involvement in the DAR controversy.”5
I looked up Elaine Goodale Eastman, and discovered that she was one of the fifteen DAR
members who signed Bailie’s pamphlet "Our Threatened Heritage," protesting the blacklists.6
Clearly she must have met Bailie, or at least corresponded with her, in order to have signed the
pamphlet. Eastman was a writer, teacher, and social reformer who also donated her papers to
Smith.7 I have not yet been able to figure out why, perhaps whether she or any of her family
went to Smith. I also have not been able to find out why Eastman thought Bailie should donate
her papers- I will check with the archivists at the Sophia Smith Collection to see if they have any
additional information. Such information has the potential to be very illuminating as it could
more fully explain Bailie’s motivations behind the way in which she wrote her journal in her
later years.
While we know quite a bit about Helen Bailie’s life, I could find less information on the
other people that she writes about in her journal. One of the most intriguing people mentioned in
the journal is Helena Born, Bailie’s friend who was so influential to her. The first mention of
“History of the Collection,” Helen Tufts Bailie Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton,
MA. < http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss130_admin.html>.
6
Bailie, Helen Tufts, "Our Threatened Heritage: A Letter to the Daughters of the American Revolution," 5 April
1928, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Jane Addams Papers, Series 1 (Jane Addams Paper Microfilm, reel 19,
#1752-1768). <http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/milit/doc20.htm>.
7
Sophia Smith Collection Finding Aid, <http://www.smith.edu/library/libs/ssc/collectef.html>.
5
Helena comes in 1895 (although it is one of those sections that was added later), where Bailie
wrote,
“At the Social Union that spring I first met Helena Born, classmate in Medieval history. I
was very soon seeking her society, visited her in her Somerville attic, brought her home
to visit Papa and Mama, accompanied her on trips of the Mycological Club, and with
mama and me she went to the festival at the Longfellow House, etc. My prize was not
very welcome at home. Helena was too much of an oddity. Mama was kind, Papa
suspicious, Russell frankly derisive. Helena introduced me to Whitman, and I joined the
Walt Whitman Fellowship, of which she was already a member.”
Bailie mentions Helena often, as they seemed to do most everything together. But she says little,
if anything, about Helena’s background, or who she is. This seems odd; maybe I just haven’t
seen the parts of the journal in which her background is revealed, or perhaps Bailie did not
include such information because she found it irrelevant to her story. Regardless, I was able to
find some information on Helena through the finding guide to her papers, which are kept at the
labor archive at NYU. Interestingly, these papers were donated to NYU in 1973 by Helena Tufts
Bailie (the daughter of Helen Tufts Bailie, who wrote the journal) through Paul Avrich, a
professor interested in preserving the history of anarchy.8 I do not know how Helena’s papers
got into the possession of the Bailie family – perhaps they were willed, or Helen Bailie just kept
them after Helena Born’s premature death.
Helena Born was born in 1860 in Devonshire, England, making her 14 year Bailie’s
senior. She was the only child born to a well off family and she received a good education in
both academics and music. Despite her privileged upbringing, Helena sympathized with the
working classes. While being trained in music in Bristol, she began reading contemporary
liberal authors, including Shelley, Thoreau, and Whitman. She also joined the “Bristol Women’s
Liberal Association,” where she became involved with women’s suffrage, political education,
8
“Administrative Information,” Guide to the Helena Born Papers, Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives.
<http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/bornh.html>.
and civic reform. She became involved in the worker’s movement in England during the 1889
Dock Workers’ Strike in London. While living in a laborer’s district, Helena and a socialist
friend of hers, Miriam Daniell, joined a socialist society, and formed a branch of a national union
for unskilled workers. While Helena worked closely with socialists, she began to lose her trust
in their theories, and after reading the theorist and philosopher Herbert Spencer she became a
“philosophical anarchist.” In 1890 she immigrated to the United States with Daniell, for reasons
I was not able to discover, settling in Cambridge. She became a proofreader and type setter,
similar to the work of Helen Bailie. Her summers were spent in New Hampshire where she was
able to nurture a close connection to nature, and ate a vegetarian diet mainly composed of food
that she grew herself. While living in Boston during the year, she joined the Walt Whitman
Fellowship, where she met Helen Tufts Bailie. Unfortunately, I was not able to find any further
information on this society. The finding guide to her papers also mentions letters between her
and William Bailie of an “intimate and close” relationship between the two.9 In my scanning of
the journal, there did seem to me a possible love interest between Helena and William, before her
death and long before he married Helen.
As for other people mentioned in her journal, I wanted to know more about Helen’s
husband, William Bailie. He is mentioned frequently throughout the journal, like Helena, but I
have also yet to find significant back story for him in the journal itself. In the later portions of
the journal that I have looked at more extensively, Helen Bailie often mentions how he is not
himself, and not really present mentally, which would suggest some sort of Alzheimer like
condition, which contributed to Helen’s feelings of loneliness and isolation in her later years. I
was not able to find any further information on his restaurant or basket weaving business, both
9
Guide to the Helena Born Papers, Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives.
<http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/bornh.html>.
mentioned in the Bailie finding aid. I did find him in the 1900 and 1930 censuses, listing him as
married to Helen in 1930. In 1900 he is listed as a border in a house where Helena Born also
lived, but he is listed as married. According to Helena’s papers, he was actually married to her
friend from England, Miriam Daniell, before her death at an unknown date. I was also able to
find record of a book he had authored, “Josiah Warren, The First American Anarchist: A
Sociological Study,” written in 1906 and dedicated to “H.B.,” possibly Helena Born, his recently
deceased friend and possible lover. So William was also interested in many of the political and
social issues as Helen Bailie, as well as being a bit of a ladies’ man.